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Paris troupe holds auditions for dancers who cancan

Cara Lee Hrdlitschka of North Vancouver auditioned for famed cabaret Moulin Rouge in 2011 and has been working in Paris ever since.

Photograph by: Sandie Bertrand

Do you think you can you do the cancan?

Legendary Paris cabaret The Moulin Rouge is holding auditions in Vancouver on Saturday July 13 to give lucky dancers the chance to prove they can high kick with the best.

This isn’t the first time the legendary cabaret company has been in the Lower Mainland.

When North Vancouver’s Cara Lee Hrdlitschka first heard about the auditions for The Moulin Rouge almost two years ago, she wasn’t sure what to think.

“I never thought it could be a reality for me,” she said in a recent interview. “When I saw that they were coming, I was like, ‘Not the actual Moulin Rouge in Paris?’”

Those auditions took place at a Sechelt studio that belonged to a former Moulin Rouge dancer. A recent graduate of the Seymour Dance school on the North Shore, Hrdlitschka decided she couldn’t miss the chance, but she wasn’t sure she had made it until seven months later, when she was offered a one-year contract.

Since joining the company, the biggest challenge for Hrdlitschka — besides learning French — has been the cabaret’s iconic cancan dance. During the three weeks of rehearsals before hitting the stage, each session started with a punishing two hours of kicking.

“It’s not what a typical dancer’s body is used to,” she said, speaking from her home in Paris. “We’re used to turning out and pointing the toe. It goes against all of that, which is really fun, but not so fun for the hamstrings at first. A lot of it is getting your body into shape for it, just so there are no injuries.”

The next hurdle was the revealing costumes that drip with rhinestones and sequins and tote massive plumes of feathers.

“I was like, ‘I can’t even move in this, let alone do the routine. I’ve never worn such big costumes,’” she remembered of the first time she donned one. “It was very exciting.”

Her favourite costume is the one she wears for Féerie, the current feature show.

“It’s all red and classic showgirl,” she said. “It was probably the costume I hated most at first because the backpack we wear with that, which is all the feathers on the back, that was the heaviest one for me. But it is really beautiful, so I can’t help but love it.”

Created by Doris Haug and Ruggero Angeletti, Féerie is a two-hour tribute to the history of The Moulin Rouge that includes pirates, jugglers, a giant python and over 1,000 costumes.

Hrdlitschka said that The Moulin Rouge hopefuls should warm up their hamstrings before the audition, and also practice cartwheels on both sides. But more importantly, they should have fun and show their personality.

Moulin Rouge associate artistic manager Janet Pharaoh, who is currently taking in another kind of Canadian beauty while on a short vacation in scenic Tofino, agrees that personality is important. But she’s also looking for really solid dancers with “great long legs and a super figure.”

Height is key: Male dancers must be over six feet tall (6-foot-3 inches according to the press release) and female dancers should be at least 5-foot-10 inches.

“If they’re really, really good and talented, I will take a girl around 5-foot-8,” she said.

Why so tall?

“It’s a tradition,” Pharaoh explained. “And it makes the costumes look good. It’s a bit like being a model. The clothes look good on tall people.”

A former dancer herself, Pharaoh admitted that performing at the Moulin Rouge is a physically gruelling job, but she said there’s also a lot of fun to be had. The dancers often have opportunities to travel and see the rest of Europe.

Hrdlitschka must be having a good time — in May she signed on for another 6-month stint with The Moulin Rouge.

“I’ve fallen in love with Paris,” she says. “But I also miss Vancouver, so I definitely see a change in my future. I won’t stay forever, but I do love Paris and I hope I can come back.”

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